China cabbies are overtaxed, can barely afford to be honest.

If a new car is licensed as a cab, then its cost is 2x of an
identical car sold for ordinary use. Cars in china must be
scrapped ( as scrap iron ) in just 10 yr, so the high cost of a cab
must be recovered in just 10 yr ! Road tax on ordinary small
cars is ¥200 pm, medium size cars ¥240 pm, cabs' rd tax is
likely higher. A cabbie's driving license costs ¥5600, cab fare
allowed by govmnt is quite low. Income tax starts from 15%
on income ¥1500 pm, now you can see how hard pressed
china's cabbies are.
Wiser to visit china only in a packaged tour ( transport is all
arranged ) unless 1 can use public transport or locals there
will provide transport. In '87 my parents went to Peking on
their own, the cabbie driving my dad ( went off to find a hotel )
would not slow down to let my dad find my mum waiting for
him by a road side with 2 big suitcases of 20 kg each : cab sped
pass my mum 6x, my mum had to wait 3-4 hr for my dad to
find her, cabbie wanted to maximise distance driven & fare
collectable.
In 6-04 in Xiamen 1 cabbie knew I was not local, because I
asked him how far Electronic*City was from Walmart ( where I
boarded ), drove me to north edge of city then pretended to have
mistaken my destination before driving south to *, so he could
get 10% more fare from me.
From * to my hotel ( 3 km south of Walmart ), I convinced a
cabbie that I was local, he did not detour for more fare. By
comparing this fare with the detoured fare I paid the 1st cabbie,
I could tell that the detoured fare was 10% necessary.